


A Year From Now

by rosehathaway



Series: Future [1]
Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Future, Linstead, Pregnancy Scares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 16:12:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8898859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosehathaway/pseuds/rosehathaway
Summary: Set a year from now. Erin and Jay deal with a possibility that their family might become a little bigger.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a series of one-shots, all set in the future. Based off of the deleted Linstead scene for 4x04. This one is set one year in the future, and there will also be two years and twenty years from now. 
> 
> Shoutout to my beta Tracey <3 I love you!

Erin Lindsay does not panic. She has always prided herself on keeping her cool, even in the worst of events. But realizing she is almost a week late for her period makes her want to curl on the floor of the bathroom and never leave.

“Babe, we have to go, or we’ll be late.” Again, he silently adds. They have been driving to work together for a while, but Erin’s bathroom shenanigans often caused them to come to work at the last minute. For an almost ridiculously punctual guy, it’s a challenge to say the very least.

“Coming!” She shouts from the bathroom, with a voice a little shakier than normal. She would just have to deal with this later.

* * *

 

“Erin? What is with you today?” He asks her, while they are driving to a case location. She has been quiet and withdrawn all morning, and he is starting to get worried. Her hands are clenching the steering wheel to the point her knuckles are white, and she refuses to make eye contact with him. On top of that, he is pretty sure she hasn’t heard a word of what he just said.

“Sorry, just a little distracted. You were saying?”

“Everyone from Med is doing this thing for charity, and Natalie’s sitter cancelled, and nobody else is free tomorrow, so he asked if we could take him for the night.”

She almost runs the car off the road. This isn’t happening. Is this some karma thing? Did she do something bad to the universe lately?

“Whoa, what is going on?”

“It was a cat,” she lies, mentally cursing herself. Right, a cat, on a street of Chicago. Nice one, Erin. A very believable lie.  

He, however, apparently accepts this explanation without suspicion. “So? What should I tell Will?”

She gulps, pulling into the parking lot of the address they are headed to. Focusing on driving buys her a couple more seconds to process everything. “It’s fine, I guess?”

He smiles and starts texting Will. Erin suddenly feels so guilty about not telling him. But it’s not the time. Or the place.

Jay finishes the text and puts his phone away. Just before exiting the car, she brushes her hand lightly against his. He catches her hand and entwines their fingers. He can feel something is off, but she obviously does not want to talk about it yet. The only thing he can do is to respect that and be there for her, regardless if he knows what she’s upset about.

With newly found strength, she loses herself in the case, and forgets about it until the evening.

* * *

 

“Babe? You okay in there?”

“Yup. I’ll be out in a minute,” she manages to get out with a shaky voice. She is holding the unopened box with the pregnancy test. Her heart is going at it so hard, she thinks she’s having a heart attack.

He must sense that something is wrong, because she can hear him hovering in front of the bathroom door. She could still do the test now and tell him later. By then she would already know about it. But she doesn’t really want to.

She has been aching to tell him all day, and it doesn’t seem fair anymore. Jay is just as much a part of this, as she is. And she doesn’t want to betray the partnership they have or the trust they have established. The cold water she throws in her face feels good. It takes some of the flush away, and she feels her head clear a little, but she knows that the second she steps out of the door, he will know something is off. That is the downside of having someone know you, better than you know yourself.

She creaks the door open, cursing herself for being such a coward. Jay is standing there, looking at her with confusion and worry as she comes out.

“We need to talk.” He nods, and they move to the living room of their apartment. The window is open, and the brisk winter air feels good to her burning cheeks.

“Babe, if something is wrong, just tell me. We’ll deal with it together, whatever it is.”

She makes a poor attempt to smile, but she appreciates the words nonetheless. This is what their relationship is. Dealing with whatever came their way-together. And it may have taken her a while to get that, but she does get it now.

“I’m...” She fumbles with the hem of her shirt, fidgeting nervously. His fingers wrap around her hand, holding them in place. His warmth calms her down, with an almost soothing effect. She swallows and finally says it. Those words that always make her cringe, when she hears it in romantic movies.  

“I’m late. As in, _late_ late.”

His eyes widen, and his body stills for a second. She can see that a million thoughts are going through his head, but she can’t read a single one of them.

“Have you done a test?” He asks, almost incredulously. His lips form a smile that makes her insides turn into mush. His arms go around her and pull her closer, until their foreheads are pressed together.

“Stop smiling, I’m freaking out here,” she mutters, and he scans her carefully. “And no, I haven’t. I was just about to, but you were hovering outside the bathroom.”

“Freaking out about what? We love each other. We talked about it. It’s something we both want. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world,” he reasons with her. “Maybe the timing caught us off guard, but that’s it.”

“My dad is a criminal, and my mom is an addict, and I’m an addict. Our child is going to have bad genes. Sometimes, a mother can pass that onto her child. Or maybe it would be unhealthy, because of…” Her voice shakes slightly as she gets the words out, and he understands with perfect clarity how scared she must be. He sees her dilemma in her eyes. She wants this, but she is scared of the consequences of her drug abuse.

“Erin, look at me.” He pulls her chin up until his eyes meet hers. “Regardless of what that test says, one day we’ll have a baby. And he is going to be so incredibly lucky. He will have a brave, kind-hearted, passionate mother who will burn down the world, before she lets anything happen to him. Or her.” She can feel a tear escaping the corner of her eyes and make its way down her cheek. And then she sees it. She sees a picture of a family and she knows that, despite doubts they would make it.

“Let’s just do the damn test,” she whispers, a smile creeping on her face. He smiles back and leans down to kiss her.

* * *

 

It turns out, she was just late.

It would be a lie to say she didn’t feel just a bit disappointed by the turn out of events, but she knows the timing would not have been right. She wants to feel ready. As ready as one can feel about being a parent. How ready can you really be?

She asks Hank one time in the future, and he just laughs and shakes his head.

“You’re never ready.”

But they do babysit Owen that week, and she gets to practice for the future. Owen is a good baby, she thinks. He doesn’t scream hysterically or eat messily. He’s the epitome of good parenting. If they ever do this thing, she should definitely get some parenting advice from Natalie. She has done a great job so far.

“He’s cute,” she murmurs at Jay, and he chuckles as a reply. She has been hogging him all night and he doesn’t really blame her. He saw the flicker of disappointment in her eyes when the test showed only one bar. “All babies are cute,” he replies. He watches her, a half sleeping Owen in her arms, as she leans carefully against him. His arms automatically embrace her, and his mind goes places.

“Ours will be the cutest,” she teases. He laughs and nods.

“Of course, I mean have you seen us? Best gene pool a kid could get.”

They joke around a bit longer, before putting Owen to sleep. They had agreed that Natalie would pick him up in the morning, so they wouldn’t have to wake him up, if she got back late. They tuck him in and read him a story, but he’s already half asleep by the third page.

“Are they all this good?”

“Ours probably won’t be,” he teases and they laugh, knowing he’s probably right.

But he will be theirs, and that’s all that counts.


End file.
